


Before the Rough: Gemma

by tess1978



Series: In the Rough [5]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Child Abuse, Gen, Gossip, Misogyny, Neglect, Shitty neighbors, implied csa, terrible parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-07
Updated: 2018-05-07
Packaged: 2019-05-03 17:27:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14573934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tess1978/pseuds/tess1978
Summary: A moment of Gemma's life before the war.Please read the tags. This fic is very short but it deals heavily with dark subject matter, as does the rest of this series.





	Before the Rough: Gemma

Gemma stepped off the bus and walked up the street to her house. It was early October and chilly, but she wasn’t wearing a sweater or jacket. She didn’t like how the smell from her Slocum’s uniform clung to her jacket, so she just went without. 

She went into the house, her head down. Her mom was sitting at the table with her friend Linda, drinking coffee. Gemma wanted to get to her room without making conversation. She was exhausted. She’d been at work since five in the morning, and it was now three. 

She almost made it to the hallway before her mother stopped her. 

“Where do you think you’re going?” 

“I just got home from work, I wanted to have a shower and lie down for a little while.” She tried not to stare at Shaun, who was fussing in her mother’s arms and refusing his bottle. 

“I thought you were off to school this fall,” Linda commented. 

Gemma didn’t reply. 

“She dropped out before the semester started. Stupid girl. All those years of dance class and private lessons, all that money spent, a scholarship to Julliard, and she just dropped out.”

Gemma could feel her face reddening, but she kept her mouth closed. 

“What a waste,” Linda remarked. 

Shaun let out a squawk and turned his face away from his bottle again, earning a flick on the ear from Gemma’s mother. She sighed and put the baby over her shoulder. “What a difficult child. I’m cursed with difficult children.”

Gemma bit her lip and clenched her bag tightly. 

“Are you still standing there? Go clean up. You smell like grease. You can make dinner tonight. Your father will be home soon.”

Gemma nodded and headed to her bedroom, blinking back tears. She could still hear her mother talking to Linda in the other room.

“It’s so kind of you to let her stay here. You’re a saint, Celia.”

“I know. I really hoped that summer camp for girls would straighten her out. I didn’t want to deal with her trouble with a baby on the way. But it made no difference. She started working at that coffee shop because of a boy, I’m sure.”

Her mother’s rant was interrupted by another cry from Shaun. Gemma could tell he was ramping up to a full scale screaming fit. 

She went into the bathroom just as her mother walked by, depositing the screaming baby in his crib. She wanted desperately to take him, but she knew her mother would never allow it. She shut the door and undressed. Shaun continued to scream in his room and her mother returned to the sitting room. 

“I’ll just let him scream until he wears himself out. I’m sure when he’s hungry enough, he’ll take his bottle.”

“You should consider getting one of those nanny robots to help around the house.”

“I was thinking about it. They sound like a cheap floozy though. I think I would prefer a Mr. Handy.”

Gemma leaned on the door. Shaun seemed to be running out of steam.

“Anyway,” said Linda. “Did you hear that Margaret is going back to her husband?”

Her mother didn’t say anything, but Linda continued on anyway. “Apparently he threatened to have the girls taken away from her if she didn’t come back.”

Gemma slapped her hand over her mouth, breathing heavily through her nose.

“Much better for those girls, having both parents at home. I don’t know how Margaret thought she was going to raise them with no husband. I don’t know why she even left. He has a good job. Didn’t Gemma used to babysit for them?”

Gemma couldn’t listen any more. She turned on the shower and stepped in before it warmed up, sucking in a breath as the icy water hit her skin. 

When it finally warmed up, she leaned her forehead on the wall and closed her eyes. She’d get away. She had to. One day, she’d find a way to take Shaun and get away from here. 

No matter what she had to do.

**Author's Note:**

> I will probably intersperse a number of these flashbacks into this series, both for Gemma and for Danse and Arthur. It's the best way I can think of to flesh out their characters without breaking into a pile of explanations or literary tricks within the series.


End file.
